News Details

Lessons from Illinois, Part 2: State losing residents, revenue

8/14/2015

As Illinois continues to work its way through the state budget mess, and as businesses continue to leave or question their future in Illinois, families are too often left in the lurch.

New Census Bureau data released this summer shows that Illinois had 10,000 fewer residents in 2014 than it did the previous year – the largest drop of any state in the nation, and more than three times the loss of the second-place state (West Virginia).

And according to new data from the IRS, the residents are taking their purses and wallets with them.

In tax year 2011 (the most recent available year, and the first year after the Democrats’ record income tax hike), Illinois lost $2.5 million in income solely because of outbound moves. Illinois lost residents to 42 of 50 states that year, including each of our neighbors.